1. Create a green card base by trimming the cardstock to 240mm x 150mm and fold in half.
2. Ink the Darkroom Door French Script Background stamp using Venetian Orange Archival ink and stamp onto the top left and bottom right corners. Ink the Darkroom Door Flourish Background Stamp using the same ink pad and stamp onto the bottom left and top right corners. Sponge around the edge of the card using Peeled Paint Distress Ink.
3. Use white cardstock to cut one piece from the Sizzix Baroque die 656633. Ink the flower from Darkroom Door 'Bold Blossoms' stamp set using Distress Markers (Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door) and stamp onto the die cut cardstock. Squeeze some Viva Decor Transparent Gloss Gel onto the petals and allow to dry.
4. Sponge the edges of the die cut cardstock using Crushed Olive Distress Ink. Wrap bakers twine around the base of the cardstock and tie at the front. Adhere to card using foam adhesive.

5. Create some labels using the Sizzix Pillow Box with Labels die 658268. This die has three different sized labels on it so you can choose the one that suits your sentiment!
6. Sponge around the edges of the die cut label using Crushed Olive Distress Ink. Stamp the sentiment from Darkroom Door 'Orchids' stamp set using Archival Jet Black ink. Adhere to card using foam adhesive.

﻿
Hi there! Today I'm sharing more ideas using Darkroom Door stamps and Sizzix dies together. One of my favourite dies is the Sizzlits Paper Rosette. It's so easy to use and if you're looking for some extra texture and dimension for your project, this is the die to use! I think my favourite way to use it is to create flowers:

Here's how I made this card:

1. Trim Yellow cardstock to 12cm square. Ink up the Darkroom Door Postcards Background stamp using Venetian Orange Archival Ink and stamp only a small portion of the stamp onto the centre of the yellow cardstock.

I love that you can cut thick pieces of grungeboard, chipboard, fabric and lots of other materials using this die.

Here's how I made the card:

Arc De Triomphe
1. Fold a 210mm x 150mm piece of dark brown cardstock in half to form a horizontally opening card.
2. Die cut Grungeboard with Tim Holtz 'Ornamental' die. Sponge with Forest Moss and Stormy Sky Distress Ink. Stamp French Script Background Stamp over the top with Archival Jet Black inkpad.
3. Punch a hole on the left and right sides of the grungeboard using a Crop A Dile. Thread black ribbon through both holes.
4. Adhere Grungeboard to card using foam tape. Finish wrapping the ribbon around the inside of the card and tie on the right hand side of the card as shown.
5. Stamp Arc de Triomphe from the DDRS050 Champs Elysee stamp set onto Fawn Cardstock with Jet Black ink. Trim and sponge edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Adhere to left side of grungeboard.
6. Stamp the little flower from the same set onto Fawn cardstock using Sepia ink three times. Trim around each flower and sponge the edges. Adhere to the grungeboard.
7. Stamp ‘Paris’ from the ‘Cafe de Paris’ stamp from the Champs Elysee stamp set using Jet Black ink. Distress the edges with a paper distresser and adhere to the grungeboard with foam adhesive.

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to be joining
the Sizzix UK blog each fortnight to share ideas on how Sizzix dies and embossing folders
can be combined with Darkroom Door rubber stamps and paper products! I've been using Sizzix dies for over 10 years now and continue to love them! Back in 2001 I started a monthly crop night called 'Midnight Madness' where a group of crafters would get together in a local community hall to craft away and chat into the night. I always brought along a red Sizzix die cut machine (remember those?) for everyone to use on the night. I've now progressed to the Big Shot machine and enjoy finding new ways to combine the dies and folders with Darkroom Door stamps. So I'm looking forward to sharing ideas with you using the both of them together!

One of my favourite dies is Styled Labels 656642.
There's two different labels on this die, both perfect size for card
making! Many of Darkroom Door's quote stamps fit perfectly into this
die, so naturally I tend to use this one a lot. Today I have two cards
to share showing how I stamp quotes onto the die...

Instructions:
1. Stamp 'Splatter Background DDBS009'
onto folded blue card using Archival Sepia ink pad. Sponge around the
edges of the card using the Sepia ink pad with an ink blending tool.
2. Cut the Styled Label from grungeboard. Stamp the quote from 'Artist DDRS027'
stamp set onto the label using Archival Jet Black ink pad. Sponge
around the edges of the grungeboard using Walnut Stain Distress Ink.
3. Pierce a hole at the top and bottom of the label using an awl and insert two decorative brads.
4. Adhere grungeboard to front of card using foam adhesive to complete!

Here's a second card using the same die:

Instructions:
1. Stamp 'Mesh Background DDBS016'
onto folded cream card using Archival Sepia ink pad. Lightly sponge
around the edges of the card using the same ink with an ink blending
tool.
2. Tear a strip of kraft glassine paper and sew onto the bottom of the
card using a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine. Crumple up the edges
of the paper to give it more texture.
3. Trim an image from the 'Wilderness Montage DDMN006' and ink around the edges with Archival Sepia ink. Adhere to left side of card as shown.
4. Cut the Styled Label from grungeboard. Stamp quote from 'Vintage Automobiles DDRS033'
stamp set onto the label using Archival Sepia ink pad. Sponge the edges
of the grungeboard lightly with Sepia ink using an ink blending tool.
5. Pierce a hole at the left and right sides of the label using an awl and insert two decorative brads.
6. Adhere grungeboard to the card using foam adhesive to complete!

Hope you've enjoyed these cards and ideas! Now it's over to you... I'd love to hear your feedback on what Sizzix dies you love! Please let me know in the comments!

I'm excited to be teaching some workshops next week at the Sydney Paper Crafts
Festival on April 5-7, 2013. Here's the details on the classes with the
details on how you can book in:

Viva La Shimmy Canvas!

Join me to create two
different home decor canvases - one for the girls and one for the guys! I will share stamping techniques using a variety of mediums to add
shimmer and style to your projects. You’ll use a range of products
including the new Viva Decor 3D Stamping Paint and Glitter Paste,
Darkroom Door rubber stamps and stencils, Ranger inks and Idea-ology
trinkets. You'll learn mixed media techniques that can be applied to
your scrapbooking, card making and any other paper crafts. In class you
will have the use of many different coloured paints so you can tailor
your canvas to your own colour tastes.

Create
two different Tag Mini Books using a variety of products including Tim
Holtz Distress Paints and Distress Inks, Darkroom Door rubber stamps,
old book pages, Idea-ology trinkets and embellishments. I will
share hints and tips on using the new Distress Paints along with ideas
on rubber stamping to create beautiful multi page cards and books from
mega-sized tags! The techniques you learn in class can be applied to
your scrapbooking, mixed media and any other paper crafts. In class you
will have the use of many different coloured Distress Paints so you can
tailor your books to your own colour tastes.

I'm a little late in blogging my Photo A Day pictures from February! Better late than never though... so here they are:

I did a bit of travelling again in Feb and ended up in the UK and Germany. It's always nice to include some photos from my travels! I love how this project also captures the pure every day stuff that happens around here... eating Milo, playing the piano, baking and working. I love it when the kids are in some of the shots too!

I'll continue to upload my montly wrap here on the blog, but if you want to see my photos on the day I shoot them, follow my Instagram feed here.

Recently I went over to the UK to demo and teach at the UK's largest craft trade show, the Craft, Hobby & Stitch Show, commonly called 'Stitches'. This trip was a quick one for me, I had a lot going on back in Australia so I had to scoot over to the UK and back pretty quickly (well, as quick as you can when you're travelling half way across the globe!) I did manage one day in London before the show to get over the jetlag. Enough time to visit the British Musuem and see A Chorus Line at the Palladium Theatre.

It was my first visit to the British Museum. What an amazing place! You would need weeks to see everything that is on display. It is so vast and the exhibits are so detailed and hands on. They have staff talking about different displays throughout the exhibits and you can touch and feel some of the items. I really enjoyed the coin and money section, reading about the history of how coins and banknotes began in this world! My other favourite was the Egyptian section with the mummies. They have xrays of the remains inside and go into a lot of detail of how it was all done. Really, I could have spent days here.

Soon enough I was in Birmingham for the Stitches show and was happy to see our Personal Impressions family again. PI are the UK distributors for Darkroom Door. It's always fun to be with them during the show working on their booth. I demonstrated our new Darkroom Door stamps and taught classes to the store owners. Lindsay Mason and Dyan Reaveley were also demonstrating on the booth. Jayne from PI jumped in for a photo too - it's always great to catch up with these lovely ladies!!

Lindsay filmed a quick video of our demo table and the Personal Impressions booth one morning before the show opened for the day... check it out here!

During the show I also got to meet up with a few more friends... Leandra and Jo Firth-Young from PaperArtsy (awesome new stamps and their displays are always amazing!!); Hels Sheridan (DarkroomDoor Creative Team member who LOVES Cheery Ripes so I brought over a few for her to enjoy!!) and Paula Pascual who had a fantastic display at the show with her new Sizzix dies!

As always, it was a great few days and it all went by way too quickly. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Personal Impressions booth to watch our demo's or to see the new stamps - I hope it inspired you!

This year I've decided to participate in a Photo A Day project. Being a photographer, I generally take photos most days anyway, so I knew it wasn't going to be that much extra effort to do something like this. But... taking photos and actually uploading them and organising them are two entirely different things! I knew for this project to work (for me) it had to be:

1. Quick - I want to take the picture, upload it and be done with it. I have decided to use my iPhone for all of my Photo A Day photos and Instagram to share them. Follow me on Instagram here.

2. Photos of my life, not my work. No masterpiece photographs here! No dilly dallying getting the lighting right, the composition right... just shoot what you think and hey presto... done!

3. Challenging - while I want it to be quick, I also don't mind a challenge. So I chose to use the prompts from Fat Mum Slim. Chantelle creates a list each month of words or phrases to prompt that days photo. Some are obscure, some straight forward. You can interpet the theme any way you choose.

Here's my photos from January 2013:

This month I took two trips - one to USA for a trade show and the other was a family holiday to the Gold Coast. I have two Jan 10th photos because I had that day twice. Once on the plane to LA, then as I gained that day again when I landed, I shot another version of the photo (the theme was 'One O'clock'). Other happenings from this month: kids started back at school, summer was hot, I was on the Jay Leno show for around 3 seconds, I wrote fan mail (and received one reply!) and Ethan is almost as tall as his cousin Jasmine.

My thoughts on the Photo A Day process so far... I like having the promt because it focuses you on one thing. After all you only need ONE photo a day for this. So even though on some days I have better photos or more appropriate photos that show what I did that day, I like the restriction. Plus it makes me think a little beyond what I would normally shoot for that day. I like the challenge.

I'll continue to upload my montly wrap here on the blog, but if you want to see my photos on the day I shoot them, follow my Instagram feed here.

Are you doing a Photo A Day this year? I'd love to hear what you're doing for it, please leave a comment and link us up to your blog or where I can take a look at your pictures!

The box is one of those paper mache boxes found at Spotlight or general craft stores. I sponged it over with Inka Gold Lava Green and added some highlights on the edges with Copper Inka Gold.

The metal corners were also highlighted with Copper Inka Gold to bring out the detail.

The Garden Inchies were stamped onto a background I created using alcohol inks. So easy and fun to do!

I also created a pendant using a couple of Scrabble tiles. Just
stamped the Inchies onto the back using Staz On ink, then coloured in
with Adirondack Pigment pens. Cover with a sealer such as Mod Podge and
let it dry. Add the clasp once it's all dry.